FAA orders Southwest to replace parts

Thursday

Aug 27, 2009 at 6:00 AM

DALLAS --- Federal officials say a maintenance company hired by Southwest Airlines used unapproved parts for repairs on some jets.

The parts will have to be replaced, but as they are not considered an immediate safety threat, regulators will let Southwest keep flying the planes for 10 days -- until next Tuesday -- while it decides how to fix the problem.

Southwest said Wednesday that the incident led it to ground 46 planes -- nearly 9 percent of its fleet -- for several hours Saturday. That led to 15 canceled flights and widespread delays -- Southwest said its on-time performance fell to 68 percent, down from 78 percent in June, the last month for which government statistics are available.

An investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration raised questions about the parts during an inspection Friday of a facility that maintains planes for Southwest.

The parts, called exhaust gate assembly hinge fittings, are used in deflecting hot engine exhaust away from wing flaps. Southwest uses only Boeing 737 aircraft, which have an engine on each wing.

The maintenance company, which was not identified by Southwest or the FAA, used hinge assemblies made by a subcontractor who is not certified to make the parts, according to the agency.

That led to discussions Friday night between Southwest, Boeing Co. and the FAA about what to do next, but the airline really had no choice. Federal regulations prohibit knowingly operating a plane with unapproved parts, so Southwest grounded planes that had received the hinge fittings.

By late Saturday, engineers determined that the use of the parts didn't pose an immediate safety danger, so the FAA let Southwest use the planes temporarily.

"The parts have to come off the planes, it's just a matter of how quickly that has to be done," said FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford. "Unapproved parts don't belong on airplanes."

Mr. Lunsford said late Wednesday that FAA officials were still talking with Southwest about the situation.

He said it was too early to know whether Southwest would face any penalties.

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